


Happy Birthday, Dum Dum.

by Truthwritaslies



Category: Captain America (2011)
Genre: Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truthwritaslies/pseuds/Truthwritaslies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve visits an old friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday, Dum Dum.

It's two weeks after he wakes up in New York that Steve receives the letter. It's been opened and he's pretty sure more than one pair of eyes has read it.

It makes him angry but what can he do? According to Fury it's for his own protection; after all Steve was laid up for three days with a varient of the flu that had been mixed up in a lab somewhere after one of the men gaurding him had sneezed. It had actually been meant as this year's vaccination but Steve's immune system was seventy years behind on his vaccinations and it was probably only the serum that had prevented it from killing him outright.

Steve doesn't recognize the handwriting but the voice shines through and the name is one he knows.

He demands to be allowed to go see the one friend he knows still lives. Fury says no and points out that he is still under the authority of the U.S. Government. Steve points out that he is only staying out of courtesy and could easily break out anytime he wanted, as he proved on his first day. Fury conceedes the point but insists that he take two gaurds with him just in case.

It's only Mama Roger's good training in manners that prevents Steve from rolling his eyes.

"Hey Dum Dum." Steve says.

"You still owe me a beer, Rogers."

The man who is lying on the bed, blind and missing a leg, attached to all manner of machinery, is hard to reconcile with the last image Steve has of the man the last time he saw him. Steve remembers though. Remembers the exact shade of blue his eyes are and the way his now missing mustache was so carefully trimmed once a week to maintain it's shape. Remembers when the wrinkles around Dugan's eyes were as thin as pencil line and only appeared when he smiled. Remembers the deepness of a laugh now thinned by age and ill-health.

"Well, I'd sneak you one in but that nurse looks like a hard-ass on par with Maria."

They share a laugh over the memories of a nurse that seemed to think she was a cross between their mothers and their CO. Dugan'slaugh turns into a cough far too quickly for Steve's liking and a few of the machines set off their alarms.

After the nurses leave them alone again they talk for hours about the team, about Colonol Phillips and about Peggy.

Finally, though, age overcomes excitement and the words begin to slur under the weight of Dugan's exhaustion.

"Tomorrow's my birthday." Dugan says, forcing each word out as he fights sleep with all the determination Steve remembers. "You'll come, right?"

"Sure. I'll see you tomorrow." Dugan's asleep before Steve finishes talking and he quietly lets himself out.

Steve returns the next day a little after two in the afternoon with a black bowler hat in a box under his arm. It's brand new but he thinks it'll get a laugh out of Dugan.

Only, when he goes to take the stairs to Dugan's room a nurse stops him. She has him sit down in the private waiting room and calls in the head nurse. She tells him Dugan died that morning and then she hands him an envelope with his name on it that was found in his nightstand.

It's full of letters but he can't read them now. Not so soon after everything else that's happened.

The hat is left behind, forgotten when he leaves.


End file.
